Hate Me Outtakes
by xrxdanixrx
Summary: Flashbacks, POV's, and insights from Hate Me.


**A/N: Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or anything to do with the pop culture of the early 00's. That'd be awesome, though.**

**Well, hey, guys! I told you all I'd have an outtake for you, and so, here it is. This is basically an account of Bella's high school life. This flashback is very heavy on the trends and pop culture of the time. And I should probably warn you that there's a lot of HP references. Just in time for the HP Deathly Hallows trailer...which was awesome, btw. **

**Thanks to my beta Lindz26 for...well...beta-ing. :-p **

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**~*A Day in the High School Life of Isabella Swan*~  
*January 2002***

A loud car horn honked twice as I ran down the stairs, tripping slightly on the last step. My bag strap fell off my shoulder and to the crevice of my elbow. I slung it back on, composed myself, and walked to the front door. As I turned the knob, the car horn blared again.

"I'm coming, goddamnit!" I yelled, swinging the front door open. But, as I stepped out, my strap slid off my shoulder again and I heard the contents of my backpack tumble out onto the ground. A familiar, loud, bellowing laugh nearby stopped me from bending down to retrieve my items. I stood there with my hands on my hips, looking up at the sky as I cursed the heavens. I dropped my eyes and raised an eyebrow, observing Jasper leaning up against his black 2000 Ford Focus, hunched over in fits of laughter. I knew exactly why he was laughing. It was because this stuff always happened to me. I was a regular klutz.

"Shut up, Jazz," I snapped, and bent down to pick up my crap: two school textbooks, two hard cover binders, one spiral bound notebook, my pencil bag, my markers case, a worn copy of _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_, and some maxi pads. It was that time of the month for sure. The pads had little facts about women printed on the protective strip of paper; for example, before the sixteenth century, the term "girl" was used to represent young children of both sexes. I had no clue. Now, I could call Jazz a girl, and if he gave me lip, I'd be like, "wham!" and show him my maxi pad protective paper.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," he said, still laughing.

I placed everything in my bag and made sure the zipper was forced as far as it would go. "Yeah, I'll wake your face up on the wrong side of the bed...with my fist," I muttered quietly, and shut the front door to my house.

"Ready to go?" he asked, and looked at his fancy new digital watch. "We've got about fifteen minutes until the bell rings."

"I hate this," I said, walking around to the passenger's side of his car. "I wanna go back to Christmas. Can we just rewind time and stay on winter vacation for like, ever?"

He laughed and opened his car door. "Yeah, when I invent the world's first time machine, I'll let you know."

I blew air out of my mouth, making a "pffft" sound as I hopped in and shut the door. "Yeaaah, right. If you invented a time machine, I wouldn't go back to winter vacation."

He placed his key in the ignition, brought the engine to life, and pulled away from my house. "Where would you go to, then?" he asked.

"Um, _duh, _I'd go back to 9,500 B.C to see if the lost city of Atlantis existed. I think it's pretty obvious," I said, rolling my eyes at his inability to read my mind. "Where would you go back?"

He hummed annoyingly in thought. "To two days ago when I was at the grocery store with my mom. I, by accident, crashed my shopping cart into Bree Tanner and she said, 'Might want to watch where you're going, Jermaine.'"

I quirked an eyebrow. "Ew, that's not even your name."

"Yeah, but it was the way she looked at me. It was like...I was seeing into her soul," he spoke dreamily.

I shook my head. "Retard," I whispered.

We pulled up to Jasper's usual parking space, all the way in the corner of the lot as far away from the school entrance as possible. He always said that if his car was there, it would be less likely to fall prey to senior pranks of Saran wrapping vehicles, but as a result, he was always complaining that he was late to homeroom.

We made the long walk to the school's front doors, everyone already making their way inside and to class. The last bell just rang as we slipped into homeroom. I gave Jasper a fiery death glare. This was the last time I rode to school with him! My truck had died a sad, miserable death, unfortunately. The winter had been cold and brutal, and it just never woke up one day. Dirt had started to collect on the windows, and I began to draw sad frowny faces on the glass with each day that passed. At least, in its morbid state, it could act as a canvas for my feelings created by my emotionally driven finger drawings.

As we sat in our usual desks, I noticed that Eric Yorkie was walking over towards us. I dodged my eyes and quickly dug into my bag for something, anything to make me look like I was busy so that he didn't start talking to me. The first thing I grabbed was my Harry Potter book. I slammed it onto my desk and it fell open to where I had it bookmarked, which was roughly a little after the middle. I lowered my head, staring at the pages of words I wasn't actually reading.

"Hello, Isabella," Eric wheezed.

I glanced up into his thick, glass covered eyes, and smiled weakly. "Hi, Eric," I greeted, and went back to my non-reading.

He sat down in the empty desk in front of me and pivoted his body so that he could, somewhat, face me. "You're reading Harry Potter?" he questioned.

I picked up the book, showing him the cover, and then dropped it back in place. "It would appear so."

"Ahh, foshizzle," he said, enunciating the word, and I had to roll my eyes at his use of the latest slang trends. "Are you up to the part where Harry and Cedric teleport to the graveyard? That's my favorite part." For some reason, it seemed like his face was getting closer to mine as he spoke.

"Uhh, no, I'm not there yet," I answered, and went back to reading, sliding down in my chair a bit.

"My theory is that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is Harry from the future. I pretty much have all the evidence to prove this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a perfectly folded up piece of paper. "Would you like to see my notes?"

I shook my head vehemently. "No, no..." _God no._ "No, you keep those."

"Why? I don't mind you seeing," he said, and began to breathe funny as he stared at me with glassy eyes. I swore his glasses were beginning to fog up. "I've never shown these notes to anyone. It's sacred." He was practically on top of my desk now as he leaned in toward me. "I want you to be my first..."

_Oh God...help me. _

"Hey, Eric," Jasper greeted from the desk next to me, a suppressed smile on his face.

Eric narrowed his eyes and appraised Jazz for a long moment. "Jasper Whitlock," he acknowledged icily. "I see you're wearing a Radiohead band T-shirt." He looked away pompously. "How very...alternative."

Jasper looked down at his shirt as if he'd never seen it before. "Yeah, they're pretty sick."

Eric hummed for a second, and then stood. He towered over my desk and stared down at me. "Well, Isabella, if you ever want to discuss Harry Potter theories, let me know. We can trade notes on AOL chat." He turned and walked over to the front of the class where he usually sat.

Jasper snickered, and I grabbed my book and hit him hard on the arm. "Dude has it bad for you," he said, chuckling.

"Shut up. Seriously," I warned.

"Hey, maybe you can print me out a copy of your chat on Harry Potter theories," he teased. "I'm sure it'll be like cybering to him."

I groaned and shoved my book back into my bag. The morning announcements came on and we listened as some freshman kid with a squeaky voice said the Pledge of Allegiance very enthusiastically. Jasper and I both had our_ left_ hands over our hearts, instead of our right, with devilish smiles plastered on our faces. It was sort of our thing to always do so that we could sneakily defy the system. No one noticed, anyway. They were busy snoring and drooling over their desks.

When the bell rang, we collected our things and walked over to our first period class, which was Drawing 101. I was grateful that I had Jasper with me in this class. We'd always made sure to have one art class on our schedule each year. He was the only person who understood how I interpreted things and drew them on paper.

Today, we were drawing still lives of random objects from the lost and found box that usually resided in the main office. Our teacher told us to bring items from home, but we'd forgotten, so we stole some from the box. I found a Chinese jump rope and a Furby, while Jasper found a pink cell phone with lots of sparkly bling on it, as well as a _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ lunchbox. He was pretty excited over the lunchbox as we set up our items in poses.

"You're gonna take that lunchbox home and beat the meat, aren't you?" I asked knowingly. The memory of me walking in on him jacking off to a Buffy poster adorning his bedroom wall still haunted me to this day.

He cleared his throat and situated his large paper and various pencils. "I don't know what you're talking about...," he said quietly. His tactic to dealing with that incident was just to feign ignorance.

"Yeah, keep saying that," I said, rolling my eyes.

The white Furby with black spots suddenly blinked its eyes, a robotic sound emitting to go along with the action.

"Whoa! Did you see that?" I whispered to Jazz.

"See what?" he questioned, drawing the outline of the lunchbox.

The Furby remained still...and I wondered if it had just been my imagination. I picked up my pencil and began to draw the little gremlin, making sure to put in the Chinese jump rope I'd wrapped around its neck. Then, his ears moved.

"Jazz, the Furby moved its ears," I whispered. Jazz turned to me with an expression as if I were insane. "I'm serious! Watch it." We stared at it for five minutes, but nothing happened.

"Okay, well...that was fun," he said, "but I'm going back to drawing." He looked back down at his paper.

"Whooopeeee!" the Furby exclaimed, his ears, eyes, and beak suddenly going crazy with robotic movement.

"Gaah!" I yelled. The thing was scaring the hell out of me and it wouldn't stop. "Kill it, Jazz."

He grabbed it and smashed it on the desk a few times and the Furby choked out "uh ohhhhh" before it died. He placed it back on the desk in front of me and then returned to his drawing.

"I'm thinking of getting tickets to go see Wheezer. Wanna come with?" Jasper questioned suddenly, looking intently at the pink cell phone.

"Only if you come to my Backstreet Boys concert," I countered. My mom had gotten me tickets for Christmas and I was totally psyched, but she said the only way I could go was if I had a friend come with me my parents could trust…and seeing as I only had one friend who they knew, I had to ask him. Jasper, of course, straight away said no and ran away. I kept nagging him after that, but he wouldn't give in.

He groaned. "Bella, no," he whined.

"Come on! It'll be fun," I said with a smile. "I have no one to go with..." I jutted out my bottom lip, trying my best to look sad and innocent.

He sighed and pointed his pencil at me. "Okay, but I will be sitting down the entire time and we will leave immediately after the concert is done."

I gasped. "But, we have to stay to watch them get on their tour bus!" I exclaimed. "It's an essential part of the concert experience!"

He shook his head in finality. "No. I refuse to stand next to crazy teen girls throw their bras at Nick Carter's head as he gets on a bus."

"You're so not a normal guy," I grumbled. "What teenage boy wouldn't want to see flying bras?"

After class, and making sure to dispose of the creepy Furby, we made our way over to our second period class, Chemistry. Almost half way there, Jasper said he forgot something back at the art room. I rolled my eyes, knowing he wanted to take the Buffy lunchbox home, and told him I'd just see him in class.

My locker was right outside our classroom, so I took my time taking out my Chem textbook and my binder. The inside of my locker was adorned with random magazine cut outs. The back of my locker had pictures of Joey and Pacey from _Dawson's Creek_ because that was true love. There were also a few cut outs of Ross and Rachel from _Friends_, because that was, also, true love. On the inside of my door, there were more cut outs of Will and Grace from _Will & Grace_, because that, too, was true love…they just didn't_ know_ it. So what if Will was gay? Semantics…

As I began to close my locker, my peripheral vision caught sight of a flash of bronze hair, and my heart started to pound against my ribcage. I quickly opened my locker door wider and pretended to busy myself with something very interesting inside, but all I was doing was slightly scratching the surface of one of my beat up textbooks. I turned my head an inch and cast him a sideways glace. I could feel a rush of wetness pool inside my Hello Kitty panties as I stared at the God a few lockers down while he turned the locker dial to open. I'd watched him do that more than I could count. I'd memorized the amount of time it'd take him to spin the dial right, then left, and then right again. My breathing picked up as I watched his long fingers curl around the locker door as he opened it.

"Edward, my man!"

I looked behind me and saw a few large guys walk up to him and pat him on the shoulder as if they were chummy.

"Going to Tanner's this Friday?" one of the guys asked as he passed Edward.

Edward laughed and nodded. "As long as there's alcohol, you know I'm there," he threw back with a smile that made me want to melt into a puddle of goo on the school floor. He waved to the guys and went back to whatever was in his locker. I continued to stare at him out of the corner of my eye, not even chancing a single blink, even though my eyes were glazing over.

Edward Cullen was _perfect_. He was by far the best looking guy in school, not that there were a whole lot of people at Forks High to begin with, but still. Every girl swooned over him while every guy wanted to be him. He was super popular and friends with a lot of the senior class. And the thing was he wasn't even on the football team or anything where all the popular guys were. He just sort of fit in with them all somehow. He was an individual like that. He did what he wanted and everyone followed after him.

The first time I saw him, I instantly had a crush on him just from the way he carried himself. He was so confident and together. I was slightly envious of that, too. I definitely wasn't confident or together. I was very much the opposite of him.

Isabella Loner Swan: the nobody.

I'd always been just another face at school. No one ever bothered to get to know me or talk to me…well, except for Eric Yorkie. I'd never gone out of my way to seek attention, but sometimes I did wish that someone, anyone, would just say hi to me. But, no matter, I was still really happy with Jasper as my best friend. I didn't know what I would've done if he and I had never met. He was the reason I woke myself up every day and went to school. Well, no, that was a lie, Edward Cullen was the reason, but Jasper was a close second. My whole day wasn't set until I got to see Edward at least once. Thank God we had a lot of classes together, including Chemistry, which I was now going to be late for.

As Edward shut his locker, I shut mine, too, but a bit harder than I had meant to. Edward suddenly turned his head to me. I ceased all my movement and held my breath, casually, of course. I wasn't blowing a balloon or anything.

Our eyes locked for the briefest of seconds—my anxious eyes with his blank ones. A mere second later, he looked away. And that was the story of my teenage life. To Edward Cullen, I didn't exist. I wasn't anything but another girl.

My eyes fell to the floor in rejection. Just once, I wished he would just look at me. _Really_ look at me. But, he never would. I mean, who would ever look at Isabella Swan. Definitely not someone as amazing as him.

Something suddenly poked me in the back, and I spun around to see Jasper with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey," he greeted. "Thought you were going to meet me in class."

I zipped up my bag and situated it on my shoulder. I glanced behind me real quick to see if Edward was still there, but he wasn't. He must've gone into the classroom.

"Yeah, just had to get my book and binder," I said.

"Well, let's bounce," he urged, and we walked into class.

I spotted Edward sitting down in the back at his usual desk next to some of the guys on the football team and a couple girls from the cheerleading squad. The guys began to horseplay around with him, and he joined in happily.

Jasper and I sat in the middle, not too far back where the cool kids sat, because we definitely weren't cool, but not too far up front where all the nerds were. Sitting in the middle allowed us to not be noticed and not get called on if the teacher tried to ask us for answers. I usually didn't mind being called on because I always knew the answers, but the last thing I wanted was for Edward to think I was intelligent. God, that would be embarrassing.

"Look, there's Bree," Jasper whispered, nudging his head towards the direction of the back.

I spotted Bree Tanner, sitting in her desk with her bare legs propped up on Edward's desk. She smacked her mouth as she chewed gum, trying to look sexy as she picked at the rubbery substance and stretched it out in front of her. The guys around her were trying to get her attention, except for Edward, who had now taken out his binder and was looking through it for something.

"God, she's cute," Jasper mused, staring at her.

I rolled my eyes and dug in my bag for my markers. "She clearly doesn't know you exist."

"Yeah," he sighed, and grabbed a black marker from my case. "Put your leg up on my desk so I can draw."

"What?" I questioned, and looked at Bree, who had moved her legs a little bit closer to Edward as he continued to ignore her. "I'm not doing that."

Jasper suddenly bent over his desk and grabbed my legs. I argued with him as he propped them on his desk. He uncapped his marker and began drawing something on my jeans. I looked to the front of the class and noticed we had a substitute, which meant we wouldn't be doing much of anything today. I grabbed a blue marker and began drawing on my raised thigh as Jazz continued his work of art down near my knee.

"Has anyone asked you to prom yet?" he asked suddenly, but not looking at me.

I furrowed my brow, taken aback by his question. "I'm not going, remember?" I'd told Jasper I hated dances and wouldn't go to prom no matter what. Instead, I'd stay at home and watch a _That 70's Show_ marathon, which would be on at the same time. Either way, it wasn't like anyone had asked me. But, I had to admit, there was only one guy I'd even remotely consider going with. I knew he'd never ask me to prom in a million years, so I was just going to sit at home. "What about you?"

He capped his marker and cleared his throat, looking towards the back of the room. "No, I'm not asking anyone."

I sighed and capped my marker, too. "Why don't you just ask Bree?"

He looked at me incredulously. "Are you kidding? Like she'd ever go out with me."

"You never know until you ask, Jazz."

He merely nodded and then put the marker back in the case. "Okay, done. Look." He pointed to the drawing he did.

I leaned forward and observed that he drew a picture of Ralph Wiggum from _The Simpsons_…picking his nose. I groaned. "Jazz, why does he have his finger up his nose?"

He rolled his eyes. "That's what he does, Bella. Uh, hello? Haven't we been watching _The Simpsons _almost every Sunday?"

Truth be told, even though we did get together and watch that show on Sundays, I'd usually wind up daydreaming about Edward. "I prefer Marge," I said, sticking my nose up.

He clicked the roof of his mouth with his tongue. "You're such a Lisa Simpson," he announced.

"Yeah, well…" I began to say in a raised tone, but trailed off to think of a character for him. "You're a Barney!"

He laughed. "The purple dinosaur?"

I narrowed my eyes. "The drunk, _Jermaine_." I snickered to myself and brought my legs down.

The substitute announced that since Mr. Banner was gone, we could go to the library and do homework or whatever. Almost the entire class began packing up their bags, except for the people up in the front. I noticed Edward packing his bag, too.

"Uh, is there a Miss Tanner here?" the sub asked hesitantly, looking down at a piece of paper.

Everyone turned their heads towards Bree. "Yeah, that's me," she answered with a cocky smirk.

"Mr. Banner said you needed to make up a test, so you'll have to stay here and take it," the sub said.

Bree groaned. "Can't I do that when he gets back or something?" she asked, eyeing Edward as he slung his bag casually over his shoulder.

"I'm afraid not," the sub replied.

She huffed and flopped down in her seat. She looked up at Edward and crooked her finger to him, egging him to bend down to her. He did and she whispered something in his ear, placing a hand on his chest. He stood straight and shrugged at her, then slapped one of his guy friends on the back and asked him if he was ready to go. I fiddled with my own bag and watched as he left the classroom with his friends.

I looked at Jasper, who hadn't even packed. "Are you coming?" I asked, and threw my bag over my shoulder quickly.

He shook his head and looked behind him. "Uh, no. You go. I'm just going to stay here and study, I think."

"Whatever," I mumbled, and left the classroom. I followed behind the rest of my class as they made their way up the stairs and to the library.

As everyone filed in, they all scrambled to tables, which there weren't a lot of. The computer stations were also getting filled, so I tried to make a dash to occupy one. However, every time I'd get to an empty station, someone would take the seat. I kept moving down one as each would become taken. Finally, I spotted two empty stations in the far corner of the library, and I quickly walked over to them. Thankfully, no one got to them fast enough.

I placed my bag in the empty chair next to me so that no one could sit there, and then I sat down at the computer. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do…probably play Solitaire or something. I was so awesome at it. I loved when I'd beat the game and then the little cards would bounce around everywhere like it was having a seizure.

I changed the cards in the Solitaire game to have goldfish on them, and then started to play. After only a couple minutes, I ran out of chances to go through my card deck. I groaned and started over again.

"Um, excuse me…Can I sit here?"

My eyes went wide and I slowly turned in my seat. I looked up and into a pair of inquiring bright emerald eyes that were staring directly into mine.

"Uh," I squeaked, and then cleared my throat to answer him, but I couldn't bring myself to speak, so I merely nodded my head. Embarrassed, I turned back to my computer screen, clicking my mouse frantically.

"Can I move this…?" he asked. I turned to look at what he was talking about and saw that he was hesitating to pick up my backpack. Even more embarrassed, I quickly snatched my bag and put it on the ground under my chair.

He moved the chair back and sat down. I could smell the strong scent of cologne coming from him, and I nearly rolled my eyes into the back of my head. I had the strong urge to jump him, but I restrained myself, taking out my sexual frustrations on the poor computer mouse as I repeatedly clicked on the card deck, flipping through at the speed of light. I realized what I was doing when it finally got to the big, red X, and I couldn't move any further.

He suddenly cleared his throat and turned to me. I froze in my seat, trying my best not to look at him. "Do you know how to get into the computer? It's asking for a password."

I held my breath, wondering if he was, in fact, talking to me. When I turned my head, I saw that he was looking at me with a small smile. Edward Cullen was smiling…at me? I was almost tempted to look behind me to see who he was_ really_ smiling at, because there was no way it could possibly be me.

"Uh," I fumbled, lost in the curve of his lips. "It's 'student'...that's what you enter."

He raised an eyebrow and then pressed some keys on the keyboard. His computer chimed to life as the desktop loaded, and he turned back to me. "How did you know?"

With a shaky hand, I pointed to a little slip of paper taped to the side of his computer that said what the password was.

He laughed lightly, the sound warming my body, putting me more at ease. "Oh," he said, shaking his head. "I promise I'm not as dumb as that just made me seem."

I furrowed my brow, as if he'd insulted me. "No, I don't think you're dumb."

He cocked his head to the side slightly, and then matched my expression. Feeling shy, I dropped my gaze to my lap.

"I'm Edward," he introduced abruptly.

I looked back up with a confused expression at why he was telling me his name. And then I realized, I knew him, but he clearly didn't know me, even though we shared almost all of our classes. It was understandable because no one noticed me. "Isabella," I said quietly, fiddling with the frayed ends of the ripped slits in my jeans.

"Isabella," I heard called behind me. Edward and I both looked to see…

GAH! Eric Yorkie!

I turned around quickly, going back to my solitaire absentmindedly.

"Isabella, what are you doing here?" Eric asked directly over my shoulder. "What are you playing?" His breath was in my ear and I shut my eyes tight, pretending he wasn't there. "Move the Jack of hearts over to the Queen of spades." When I didn't make a move, he grabbed the mouse from me. "Here, let me do it."

I leaned away from him as he towered over me. "Uh, thanks."

He pulled away and then I heard a chair grinding against the floor, and in a flash, he was sandwiched in between Edward and me. I wanted to huff as Eric obstructed my view of the beautiful guy who had actually spoken to me.

"You're welcome. Hey, I wanted to know if you want to go to prom with me," he said quickly.

My throat went dry. Oh no…he was asking me out to prom? In front of Edward? God, could this have been any more humiliating.

"Um, thanks, Eric, but…I'm actually not going to prom," I replied quietly, hoping Edward wouldn't hear. I could see his hands typing on the keyboard and his computer screen flashed with a web browser, which meant he probably wasn't listening, anyway…thank God.

"You're not going?" Eric asked, sounding disheartened. "I mean, I'll pick you up and everything. My mom is going to let me borrow her station wagon."

Oh boy… "I'm sorry, but I sort of have plans already…" I lied. Well, I did have plans…with my TV and some Fruit by the Foot.

His expression grew even more sad, and I actually felt bad, but I definitely did _not_ want to go to prom with Eric Yorkie. Suddenly, his face brightened and he pushed his glasses up with his index finger. "Oh, I get it," he said jovially. "You want to be asked in a special way. Of course!" He stood, and my mouth dropped in shock. "You're going to be blown away, Isabella! Make sure you wear gold to match my suit." He scurried off without another word.

Holy cow…

I couldn't even think about what had just happened, so I turned back to my computer screen stiffly. I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard a stifled snicker coming from Edward, though I didn't dare look in his direction. Of course he'd laugh at me. God, sometimes I wondered why I even existed.

I continued playing Solitaire, hyper aware of Edward's body next to mine. He didn't attempt to talk to me again after that, and I was actually thankful. Even though I had the biggest crush on him and always wished he'd notice me, it was different when that wish actually came true. All I wanted to do was crawl into a hole and hide from him forever.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a pair of arms wrap around Edward's chest and black hair curtain around his head.

"This is a surprise. What are you doing here, Eddie?"

Edward looked up. "Oh, hey, Emily. My class has a sub, so…I'm here."

I kept my strained eyes glued to the computer screen as I heard the gentle sounds of kissing and a soft moan emit from her. I breathed in deeply, trying to block the sound with the air that filled through my nostrils.

I'd heard from Jasper that Edward was currently dating Emily. I was actually surprised, since I didn't think Emily would ever date a guy like Edward, someone who dated around a lot. I wasn't exactly blind to Edward's overly social tendencies, and most of the time it did bother me that he could change girls so quickly, but a huge part of me didn't care because…well, he was Edward. I really could see no wrong in him.

"So, I was thinking…," Emily said, "maybe you can come over after school? My parents won't be back until a bit later."

Edward chuckled. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah," Emily answered breathily, and I heard more kissing again. "Why are you back here alone? Come with me and we'll find a table or something."

"Actually, I'm looking up something for my U.S Government project. So, maybe we can just stay here," Edward said. "Pull up a chair."

I sighed and quickly gathered my belongings. I really didn't want to hear them kissing and stuff. Maybe I'd just go back to class. At least Jazz was there and could keep me company.

I scraped my chair back against the ground and stood. "You can sit here," I said to Emily. I took in her appearance. She was actually really pretty with long dark hair and olive skin. She was dressed tastefully with nice jeans and a white cashmere sweater. Of course Edward would want to be with her. They looked beautiful together.

"Oh, thanks…?" she trailed off, clearly not knowing my name.

"It's Isabella," Edward told her. I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

"Oh, well, thank you, Isabella. That's really nice of you," Emily said with a kind smile, and then sat down in the seat I had previously occupied. She angled her body towards him and grabbed his hand, lacing her fingers with his.

Without another word, I held on tight to my backpack strap and left. I could hear Emily and Edward quietly laugh as I walked away from them and out of the library, trying to hold back tears that began to well in my eyes.

x-x-x-x

"…And when I picked up her lead pencil off the ground and handed it to her, our fingers touched, and I swear…it was like an electric current passed through me," Jazz explained.

"Right," I agreed absentmindedly as we walked through the parking lot after school. He'd been telling me what happened between him and Bree in Chemistry…which was nothing.

"Isabella! Wait up for me!" I heard yelled from behind me.

I stopped and turned to see Eric Yorkie bounding quickly across the parking lot towards us. I groaned softly and Jasper snorted.

"Can't he just leave me alone?" I whispered to Jazz.

"Where's the fun in that?" Jasper questioned, amused.

Eric finally caught up, huffing and puffing as he tried to catch his breath. "I was waiting by your locker for ten minutes, but you never showed."

Before I could reply, Jasper cleared his throat. "She didn't need any books from her locker," Jasper said. "I'm going over to her house today, so she's just going to use mine."

Eric stared daggers at Jasper and wrinkled his nose. He looked back at me, his expression more determined. "I noticed you are wearing an exquisite color of green today, Isabella. Unfortunately, it is the house color of Slytherin, which you know who belonged to, so I can't say that I admire it."

"Who?" Jasper asked.

I sighed, because I actually knew. "He's talking about Voldemor—"

Eric cut me off by slapping his hand against my mouth. "Don't say his name!" he whispered harshly. His expression turned to fear and his eyes darted around. But, in an instant, he dropped his hand and reached into his pocket, pulling out a piece of paper. "I wanted to give you this." He handed it to me, which I took hesitantly. "It's all my contact information so we can begin conversing outside of school."

I opened it and saw about three different email addresses, two telephone numbers, and a home addresses. "Um, thanks…" was all I could say.

"Gryffindor1984 is my AOL chat username, which seems to be the preferred method of communication these days," Eric said. "I will be on tonight waiting for you."

I looked at Jazz, who was trying to suppress a laugh, and then back at Eric, who was licking his lips while eyeing my chest. "Uh, yeah, okay," I said.

"Hey, Yorkie!" someone yelled angrily.

We all turned to see a large blond guy in a letterman jacket, who I knew to be James, with a sneer on his face. Standing next to him was Laurent, a smaller guy in the same jacket, and on the other side of James was…

Edward Cullen.

My pulse quickened at the sight of him, his piercing eyes glaring at Eric. I longed for him to look at me, but, of course, I was invisible.

"Oh no, it's James and Laurent," Eric whispered, and looked at me. "Isabella, I will speak with you tonight at eight o'clock sharp. At the moment, I must be off."

Before Eric could run away, James and Laurent walked over and prevented him from leaving, trapping him in some sort of weird _A_ _Night at the Roxbury_ human sandwich. I noticed Edward stayed behind, but watched intensely with his arms crossed over his chest.

"We hear you're being a nerd, _nerd_," James taunted, and pushed Eric towards Laurent, who pushed him back towards James forcefully.

"Hey, guys, I don't want any trouble," Eric squeaked.

"We didn't say you could speak, _nerd_," Laurent chided.

James grabbed Eric by the collar and lifted him off the ground effortlessly. "Where's that English essay I told you to write for me?" James asked, his tone laced with calm venom.

I tugged on Jasper's sleeve discreetly. "Should we go?" I asked him in a whisper. James and Laurent didn't even seem to notice we were here.

"No, this is fun," Jasper whispered back.

I scowled. "This is wrong on so many levels," I said. I actually felt bad that they were bullying Eric.

Eric's expression turned frightened. "I, uh…I—"

"You don't have it, do you?" James asked, but it was more of a statement. "You know what happens when nerds don't do what they're told?"

Laurent instantly grabbed Eric's ankles and hoisted it over his head while James grabbed Eric's torso to lift his body, as well.

"No, wait!" Eric exclaimed. "Put me down this instant!"

They carried him over to the dumpster around the side of the building and threw him in. When they were done, and had flipped the dumpster lid down, they dusted their hands in finality and joined Edward again. The three of them walked away, laughing as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

"I guess we can go now," Jasper said, smiling.

I glared at him. "That was wrong and you know it."

"Oh, come on. That guy is always on your back trying to ask you out. In my opinion, they did you a favor," Jasper said with a shrug.

I stared at the back of Edward as he approached his Volvo, James and Laurent waving to him as they approached their own cars. Edward took out his car keys from his back pocket and began to open his door, when Emily ran over and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. He looked over his shoulder and smiled at her, saying something I couldn't hear. She stood on her tippy toes and kissed him softly. He turned around and deepened their kiss, snaking his hands to her waist and down to her backside.

"Looks like Edward's getting laid today," Jasper remarked.

I tore my eyes away, feeling flushed, and quite possibly sick. "So, are we leaving?" I asked abruptly, my throat tight.

"Yep," Jasper said, and began to walk towards his car.

I snuck one last glance at Edward, who wasn't there anymore, and neither was Emily. I looked over towards the parking lot exit and saw his Volvo quickly speeding out onto the main street.

"Are you coming?" Jasper asked me, and at the sound of his voice, I turned and followed directly behind Jasper to his car.

* * *

**A/N: **

**Well, Bella was pretty much a dork in high school. If you didn't get that already from the actual story, then now you know. But more than anything, she was a loner. **

**FYI, Eric Yorkie has become my new favorite HM character. Haha. Seth was in the lead there for a while. Poor kid. **

**Now I will go wait patiently until I can go see Eclipse and then go see it a bajillion times after that. See you next week for a normal HM update. :-)**


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